Off Topic Nikon P900/1000

the first telescope at the Sydney Observatory on Saturday night

Great pics already Adrian. I just spent an evening at the Sydney Observatory last Saturday evening. We were fortunate to have Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon in the sky - all at the same time.  The last time I was there was around 1975 and it was a rainy evening so we saw nothing.  But with reasonably clear skies on Saturday, we viewed star clusters with the first telescope (above) and then moved to a different telescope (below) under a different dome to view the planets. But despite the telescopes they used costing tens of thousands of dollars... the results were only slightly larger than the view from my $XXX Celestron spotting scope.  In the end, the view from my very inexpensive little spotting scope was essentially very similar.  The Nikon P900 that I recommended a few months ago has a very powerful (2000mm equiv) optical zoom which is very impressive for the price.  I honestly think that the images it captures would (possibly) exceed the image quality of what I was looking at on Saturday through the professional scopes used at the observatory. Mars was pretty uninteresting.  Not sure how others can capture detailed images when the Observatory telescope could only see a disc shape.


the second telescope at the Sydney Observatory

Had a similar experience years ago before the Stromlo telescopes were burnt out.
My daughter and I managed to have look through the big reflector.....You didn't actually look through it, you watched a computer screen (I applied for a job there as an Instrument Maker....Didn't get it) and was shown over the entire fascillity.
When my daughter looked at the image through the scope she stepped back and said. " Dad Your telescope is better than this one"!  Everyone standing around had a bit of a chuckle over that.

Some shots with the P900 tonight.

Rain splashes on the barby table



UFO in orbit around the barby table


Ice Sculpture.



Not sure what ta call this one?


Like the other one but popped.

Diggin the b&w....perhaps called "Birth of the Bubble" (Hubble? )...

Loving those photos

The bottom picture at first glance
I thought it was the bottom of a glass, but the top of it had already exploded away

Bloody awesome pictures Adrian..
Thankyou for sharing with us all

Amazing photos Adrian, feel free to share more. cheers Pete.

Interesting comment Jen. I was going to call it broken Glass.

GypsyGoldAu.

Would you believe the pics were taken in full colour mode.
It is a dark and stormy night tonight with not even light about.

I bounced the flash upwards off the table into the rain drops.

...better still, your familiarizing yourself with the 900 is REALLY paying off. I was fooled.

It is a very forgiving camera but the son of a gun still has not produced a good shot of Jupiter. Grrrrr and, Grumble , grumble

When I was a supervisor at the Navel Dockyards Williamstown working on the Anzac Frigate Ships. I was watching the Tech. boys working on the spy camera's that they use to hone in on targets. These camera's work in conjunction with satellites. These thing's were amazing. They zoomed it on a girl sunbathing on St.Kilda beach and you could almost count the hairs on her head. Boy could you have a ball on a nude beach with one of these.
wombat

Gee Wombat, Williamstown to St Kilda, that got to be a good 5 Kms as the crow flies, that's amazing! How long ago did you see it, just trying to work out in which era they had such technology (imagine what it can do now)?

CostasDee wrote:Gee Wombat, Williamstown to St Kilda, that got to be a good 5 Kms as the crow flies, that's amazing! How long ago did you see it, just trying to work out in which era they had such technology (imagine what it can do now)?

No mate they bounced it of the satellite and then back down to earth. Not just looked across the bay. They could pin point things half way around the world if they wanted to. They use this stuff with guided missiles. This was back in 2001.
wombat

We had a metal detector in the RAAF back in 78 that could detect a 10 cent size bit of metal from 5000 ft.
Also had an airborne laser that could map the surface and ocean floor from 10000 ft showing detail down to the size of corrugated iron roof ripples.
I built the instrument panel for the AC that we fitted the laser to.....Had to redesign the entire instrument panel so that the laser controls and display would fit

Wouldn't want to be in yer row boat if the beam passed over the boat.

That stuff is seriously old hat now.

adrian ss wrote: It is a very forgiving camera but the son of a gun still has not produced a good shot of Jupiter. Grrrrr and, Grumble , grumble

If you don't have access to a mount with motor drive then perhaps you could try stacking several images. It's a technique used in astronomy to overcome noise.

This is your picture with levels adjusted. The position of the noise should be different in each shot and average out when stacked or added.

Geez, just imagine coupling this technology to a tecta! Detecting gold at 50mts. Just wishing.
Keep the pictures coming, loving them, even if they are not real gold, they are still golden.

travelergold wrote:Geez, just imagine coupling this technology to a tecta!  Detecting gold at 50mts. Just wishing.

Already does....check out GPR to do the job.

GGA

A bit off topic from your great Nikon shots, but have you been looking in the west just after sunset lately.  You can see Venus, Mercury and Jupiter all in the same section of the sky.  Mercury is slightly south of the track of the others on the ecliptic.

Apparently in historical times there was a famous astronomer who never saw Mercury.

Hi Rob.
Yes and I am still waiting to get a clear sky so as to catch a pic, This is the first time that I have been able to see mercury easily since I started  looking at the stars  back when I could just walk. 
       I think the astronomer who never saw mercury was Copernicus.

Mercury is rather faint, so you will need a very clear sky to capture anything worthwhile. I have tried with a couple of camera options, but result was not one that is worth sharing.

A married couple dropped by  a while back


And again this arvo.


This little fella comes in alone at the same time every day. He is either divorced or his Mrs is road kill. 

Great shots Adrian, keep them coming.

Hand held shot of the new Moon earlier this month.

Got my supplies.



Now! Which way is home?

Brilliant. Have to get me a camera like that, although I am guessing that the skill of the user has something to do with it.

It's on my 'To Get' list currently, funds have just been diverted to a more profitable avenue....loads of features and fast.

One thing Adrian, how does it 'feel' in the hand and how intuitive is it to operate? (ie; function switches where you'd expect to find them, balance, weight, etc)...

Gypsy

Mine weighs in at 925g. The controls seem to be pretty standard to me and within easy reach, except I not very keen about the flash pop up button and the camera card cover is easily opened although I have not bumped mine open yet. Also the On/Off switch is flush mounted and a pain to find in the dark.
       The cam is a piece of cake to operate. If you have used other DSLRs then this one is easier than most.
The camera rests nice and snug in the hands.

As for the skill of this operator....Hmmmm? I think maybe I just have a lot of patience and not a lot of skill. The P900 is a very forgiving camera.

No worries Adrian and thank-you for the shared experience.

I currently have a Nikon D40x as my go-to camera for the finer work. So coming from a Nikon is a good start. I had been considering a longer zoom lens to marry to it for a similar outcome, but the 900 got my attention while researching, and comes in under the price of a genuine zoom lens by a few hundred $ and is more versatile.

I could buy the 900 AND a half decent Macro lens (which i'd also like for the D40x) for the price of just the zoom lens and have all my bases covered.

Your getting the hang of it Adrian, however, if the 900 comes with a remote trigger, i'd give setting up a shot with a tripod and remote release a try, if nothing more than to try something different....and perhaps another like-able way to shoot.

It is a bit more fiddly than point & shoot, but if you like a challenge, this is one way to get just a bit more out of your gear for just a bit different result. As the camera is fixed you can shoot multiple stills with varied adjustments for effects. This helps you get a better understanding of where the parameters of the camera lay, and the effects you get when you go beyond those limits...jmo.

Liking what you've done to date,...keep sharing please.

***EDIT***...oh yeah, i too am not a fan of the Auto Flash (there's one on my D40x too) and prefer a hot shoe, but in a pinch you can set up a remote auxiliary flash (at least with mine) for a different source. Still have my dual Minolta x300 bodies and range of lenses and Thyristor flash and rolls of film.

Gypsy

Yes I still like my old Pentax KX with all the stuff that attaches to it.
Ran of a few shots through a 1000 mm mirror lens of jupiter with it at the time I got the the P900. So it will be interesting to see how they compare, although it may be a while before the film is processed.

One aspect I do not like re the 900 is that in macro on a close up, if you zoom in a bit to get a bit more magnification a point is reached where the auto focus won't focus, so you have to back off the zoom a bit.
Not a major prob, but irritating

Morning Adrian,
Have a Pentax K10 digital here, had a film model prior and stayed with Pentax when the digital was released because all the lenses and gadgets were exchangeable.
My problem is I take all the gear with me every trip however "gold fever" gets the better of me every time and the camera rarely comes out.
Have a range of lenses up to 300mm zoom.
Question: What lens & settings do you recommend for a moon shots. Have tried many times and given up because the results are always under or over exposed.

A 500x zoom will give you a reasonable size image that can be enlarged later. a 1000x is better
The moon is fairly bright.
Choose a clear night sky.
500x zoom
ISO 200
1/125 sec. You might have to bracket your exps a bit to get a good result.
F8.
Set manual focus if possible.
Take the pic in RAW if possible, otherwise use what you have.
Use a tripod.
Use a remote shutter or the on board timer to help reduce vibration.
If you are going hand held then steady the cam against something very solid and maybe select a faster shutter speed with a corresponding increase in ISO.